
AT NINETEEN I NEVER SLEPT
If I had something to do I would not do it and neither would I
give in, betraying myself, punished and stretched, drinking coffee topped
with ten dollar bottles of whisky, leaving at two or three in the morning
to do groceries or to take a tour of the neighbourhood
which then was Yonge Street, Dundas Square, Church,
Carleton. I was always being touched by strangers.
A man in his car followed my roommate home from work, driving five
per hour for blocks. Someone whose gender was more fluid
stopped their car on Bloor in the early morning, asking for directions
to the very next intersection. Then asked if I wanted
a ride home. This isn’t what I’d meant to write. For blocks
I’d followed some oafish drug dealer (he looked cartoonish,
a fat Chong) as he shook down his colleagues and friends
then disappeared into a faded deli with bleached posters of Mats Sundin,
his eerie whitish Scandanavian smile. Wood panelling, stove topped
with dust. A place found always locked when I’d tried
to eat what I was sure would not be good. Nothing was. It was
a different time. With disbelief I found that night
that I was alive. Running to catch a light, closing the careful
distance. Before I lost him. As if there was some meaning.
I never got in the car. Rhinestones, a wig, long blue dress,
two days of stubble, elegant evening wear for a hazy, late,
empty November. But perhaps I might have, if I had known
a little more, had been somehow even hungrier
Whatever was waiting for me. Eager to be noticed, as when the year before
I’d almost cashed a stranger’s cheque. Instead I pointed
to the very next set of lights. We could almost read the sign. Didn’t wonder
what was sitting with them. Not until I’d turned away.